Cople Church Brasses

by Dr Vaughan Southgate

November 2010

My e-mail address appears on the Friends’ of Cople Church page and over the years I have had some interesting communications, from within our shores but also from much farther afield, often wanting information about the Church, or long dead relatives buried in the graveyard. This week I received a request from someone who lives on Vancouver Island in Canada for some photographs of the brasses in the Church which I have taken and passed onto him. He is researching his family history and I enclose some snippets from the many e-mails which have passed between us :-

Thank you for confirming Bennet Grey's parentage - it makes the brasses of John and Alice Launcelyn all the more meaningful to me. I have read that John Launcelyn was justice of the peace for the county, and lived at a property called Woodend, but didn't know how Bennet was related to him. I shall now have the pleasure of looking into his history as well!

My connection to the Greys and Launcelyns is through Simon Digby of Bedale, who married Anne Grey, granddaughter of Thomas and Bennet Grey. Their granddaughter, Elizabeth Digby, married a London merchant named Enoch Lynde, and their son, Simon Lynde (who was brought by his mother's cousin, the Earl of Bristol, to kiss the hand of King Charles I), became a prominent citizen of Boston, Massachusetts. I descend from Simon's granddaughter, Hannah Lynde, who married the Rev. George Griswold in Connecticut. For years it was thought that Anne Grey Digby was from another branch of the Grey family (one with a descent from Edward III, if memory serves). I think the correct ancestry is much more interesting, as it takes in the Launcelyns, the Isaacs, and Guildfords. It was families like these that really made up the backbone of their England.

I'm especially intrigued by the connection to Henry VIII via John and Alice Launcelyn's daughter. The king was also connected to my ancestor Sir William Locke, when he was Sheriff of London and mercer to the court. It was a small world even then!

It occurred to me that there could be someone living locally who is reading this and recognises the names, is perhaps a descendant, or simply has an interest in local history and can supply more information for Grant Hayter-Menzies at Grant_menzies@yahoo.com

The pictures of the brasses taken by Vaughan were on the Cople Photo web site but that site is currently being replaced

More information on Cople Church here
and The Friends of Cople Church here